The spooks, spirits and specters within the Multicultural Heritage Centre are getting a summer showcase.

The building in Stony Plain is considered one of the most haunted locations in Alberta. It has been named as such by media outlets like photo-entertainment website theCHIVE and has offered ghost tours of the building to small groups for the past seven years each October. Officials with the centre decided touch on this history more and, as a result, the first-ever Spooky Sleepover is set for tonight into Saturday.

During the ghost tours in October, visitors are shown around the grounds and told stories about eerie circumstances that have occurred throughout the history of the site. People have felt shoves from unseen forces, three people have died from the flu at the area before it all was used as a museum, and, similar to other purportedly haunted locales, people have had items go missing and heard strange noises. The sleepover will have similar content, but new additions as well in order to keep its tween-teenaged audience entertained through the night.

“We are going to have a spooky treasure hunt and project a movie and let kids up into the loft area of the cabin,” organizer Nicole Rees said. “It is going to be a lot of fun and will hopefully be a great way for their questions about the history of the centre to get answered.”

Brianna Webber is one of the event organizers and envisions it being around long into the future.Evan J. Pretzer

Fellow organizer Brianna Webber explained that she and Rees also worked to be conscious of childhood fears when putting together the evening. As children can sometimes fear the banal from clowns to commercial mascots, the films on offer are safe and popular fare.

“It will be The Adams Family and like Ghostbusters,” she said. “We did not want to venture too far into the horror genre. Neither of us are huge horror fans and we wanted to be on the less scary spectrum so no one would want to go home and not ever come back.”

The program has a waiting list for upcoming events and Webber and Rees are eyeing expanding it into other age ranges and times of year in the future. They are excited to showcase the sights and sounds of the space as things go bump in the night, and, say they could not have gotten it all together were it not for the support of other staff members and directors who also work at the Multicultural Heritage Centre.

“We have a great team here that was behind us the whole way,” Webber said. “I thought it would take longer, but when people are completely on board, it really puts doubts to rest. It is great to work with such creative freedom to make these kinds of programs.”

Those looking for information on future sessions can contact the centre by phone or their website.